Hello,

ProductVersion is a Property within support by Windows Installer. To pass this value to Custom action, we can set the CustomActionData Property in the Property Window of the custom action, for example, /Version="[ProductVersion]". And then, in the installer class, we can get the version using the following code.

protected override void OnBeforeInstall(IDictionary savedState)
{
string version = this.Context.Parameters["Version"].ToString();
System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox.Show(version);
base.OnBeforeInstall(savedState);
}

More information
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa370859%28VS.85%29.aspx
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/2w2fhwzz.aspx
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/9cdb5eda.aspx

Thanks,
Rong-Chun Zhang
MSDN Subscriber Support in Forum
If you have any feedback on our support, please contact msdnmg@microsoft.com

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Welcome to the All-In-One Code Framework! If you have any feedback, please tell us.

Hello,

Thanks for your posting on MSDN forum.

First, let me confirm my understanding with you, you want to install the shared service application between your applications, that mean if uninstalling either of the application(app1 or app2), the service application is not uninstalled, however, if uninstalling both the application(app1 and app2), the service application is uninstalled too. Please correct me if there is any misunderstanding.

To installed a shared component, I suggest you use the Merge Module. Merge modules are used to deliver shared code, files, resources, registry entries, and setup logic to applications as a single compound file. It use a "count" internally to control the shared the component, that is when the count becomes 0, the shared component gets uninstalled. For example, if we install app1 and app2, the merge module count is 2, if we uninstall either of them(app1 or app2), the count becomes 1, if we uninstall both of them(app1 and app2), the count becomes 0 and the shared component gets uninstalled.

If you have any additional question, feel free to post here.

Thanks,
Rong-Chun Zhang
MSDN Subscriber Support in Forum
If you have any feedback on our support, please contact msdnmg@microsoft.com

---

Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help and unmark them if they provide no help.
Welcome to the All-In-One Code Framework! If you have any feedback, please tell us.

It sounds like you do understand part of the problem. As far as the counting goes... App1 and App2 can/may be installed at any time, so I would have to find a way to persist the reference count. In truth I got it to work via a service table entry, but now I have other issues. I'm going to attempt to handle installing, uninstalling, and upgrading via a custom action. Since I have keys in the registry telling me which versions of my products are installed I can get most of what I need to make decisions. THe problem I am grappling with now is getting the 'ProductVersion' property in the CustomAction to make decisions.

Hello,

ProductVersion is a Property within support by Windows Installer. To pass this value to Custom action, we can set the CustomActionData Property in the Property Window of the custom action, for example, /Version="[ProductVersion]". And then, in the installer class, we can get the version using the following code.

protected override void OnBeforeInstall(IDictionary savedState)
{
string version = this.Context.Parameters["Version"].ToString();
System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox.Show(version);
base.OnBeforeInstall(savedState);
}

More information
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa370859%28VS.85%29.aspx
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/2w2fhwzz.aspx
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/9cdb5eda.aspx

Thanks,
Rong-Chun Zhang
MSDN Subscriber Support in Forum
If you have any feedback on our support, please contact msdnmg@microsoft.com

---

Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help and unmark them if they provide no help.
Welcome to the All-In-One Code Framework! If you have any feedback, please tell us.